About

The Fieldtrip project leverages information and communication technologies to address teenagers’ overall orientation toward, and engagement in, school and learning. Though students’ experiences in the classroom are obviously critical to achievement, family, peers, community, media and our American culture(s) also shape young peoples’ aspirations and attitudes about the value of education. Though these factors are widely believed to impact student achievement, schools have been neither resourced nor expected to address them. Indeed, how can anyone hope to be part of that outside-of-school equation that can so influence a student? Our team (see the “Team” heading) is exploring ways that involve the networking tools teens use to connect with one another. To that end, Fieldtrip is an online community that features various media intended to help teenagers think through and own their relationship to education, and collects data that can be analyzed to detect any changes in teens’ education-related beliefs, attitudes or intentions.

The site was piloted for one-month in 2007. Seventy-five films, shot on high-end video cell phones were produced by seven teenage filmmakers, and posted, a few per day, on a website to stimulate dialog among seventy other teenage community members. The members didn’t have to watch the films or post comments. But they did. Four hundred fifty voluntary text comments were posted. That membership was anonymous may have been a key factor in this success. Postings dealt extensively with beliefs and attitudes related to learning and school—exploring issues that correlate strongly with the literature concerning motivation. The website was moderated by supervised college undergrads. The quality of the journal-like videos was high (see “Film” under “Categories”) partly because the teen filmmakers collaborated with film industry professionals whose expertise was “hidden” in the editing. A key objective was that the films maintain authentic voices. They did because each filmmaker chose and followed his/her own line of inquiry:

• SONYA: Why are some students motivated to learn, and others, not?
• TIERRA: How does stereotyping by teachers affect a student’s education experience?
• ANNA: Who controls a student’s education?
• JULIAN: How does school reflect or deny American ideals of democracy and equality?
• JORDAN: How and when does a young person mature? What (family issues) may impede that? How does school relate to growing up?
• LAUREN: How is school experience, like home experience, dependent upon the quality of the relationships that have evolved there?
• RYAN: How is school part of a larger social justice environment that may leave some communities at a disadvantage?

The 6–13 films each teen filmmaker produced revealed a natural arc of revelation—the stuff of good stories.

The goal now is to take the project to the national teenage public and track the discourse for evidence of shifts in education-related attitudes and beliefs over a much longer period.

Phase I was funded by the National Center for Research Resources and the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation. Nokia donated video cellcams. Phase II is seeking to replace the Deutsch funding, which was exclusively for a pilot.